Mali: Starving children of the Sahel are "the face of this funding shortfall", says Amos

Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), Mali: Starving children of the Sahel are "the face of this funding shortfall", says Amos , 5 September 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/504db1f42.html [accessed 2 August 2015]

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Valerie Amos, the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, recently traveled to Mopti to witness firsthand the effects of the armed conflict on the lives of IDPs.

IDPs there explained to Amos how "they left their homes due to insecurity, but also because they had no money to buy food since the collapse of the economy". With less than half of the United Nation's financial appeal for Mali so far funded, she described the 300,000 children across the Sahel who die of malnutrition every year as "the face of this funding shortfall."

Close to 445,000 people have been uprooted since the political crisis which erupted in January, 174,000 of whom are internally displaced. In northern Mali, some 107,000 IDPs and their host families can reportedly no longer meet their most basic needs and require urgent action. Children are particularly vulnerable to hunger, diseases and recruitment by armed groups to serve as soldiers, minesweepers, cooks or sexual slaves. While last month UNICEF reported that at least 175 children had been recruited into armed groups, other sources speak of hundreds more.